History
This fancy 45.52 carat deep-greyish blue diamond was once owned by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in the 17th Century, later on by King Louis XIV of France, Evalyn Walsh McLean in the early 20th Century, and now resides in the Smithsonian in D.C.
What is the Hope Diamond?
This stone in unstable and will crack within a year of being mined. That is why it is treated with a plastic substance to increase durability. It’s often impregnated with wax to deepen the color.
What is Turquoise?
A beryl that is commonly treated with fillers, has a long history with royalty and is the birthstone for May.
What is Emerald?
This tool is impregnated with rouge on cotton to offer strength and absorbency when cleaning.
What is a jewelry polishing cloth?
In its pure form, this stone is colorless. But, with the presence of impurities green, blue, pink, red, yellow and orange hues are present. (Green Emeralds, Pink Morganite, Blue Aqua, Yellow Heliodor).
What is Beryl?
A global initiative to combat the trade of “conflict diamonds”, which are rough diamonds used to finance wars against governments around the world.
What is the Kimberly Process?
This is a light brown stone when mined and is often color treated. It comes in blues, greens, golden to orange and very rarely rinks to reds. Most of these crystals are found in the Minas Gerais in Brazil producing the yellow, orange and pink colors.
What is Topaz?
This birthstone is graded by the 4C’s: Color, Clarity, Carat, and Cut
What is Diamond?
This is a machine that uses high frequency sound waves transmitted through liquid to scrub clean parts.
What is an ultrasonic machine?
A phenomena that is known as chatoyancy, is an optical effect where a single bright band of light moves across the surface of a cab cut gemstone.
What is Cats-Eye?
This 105.6 colorless diamond is on of the largest in the world mined in India and was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850. This diamond now sits in the front of the Queen Mother’s Crown and displayed in the Tower of London.
What is the Koch-I-Noor Diamond?
Also known as Corundum, this stone comes in many colors. The top quality of this stone is mined in Kashmir, but they also tag a pretty price from Sri Lanka and Myanmar. This stone is stable to light, very hard and durable.
What is Sapphire?
This organic mineral is graded by luster, type, thickness of nacre, color, shape and size. Sitting as June’s birthstone, this gem is not really a stone.
What is Pearl?
This machine heats water to high temps with an internal boiler to create pressurized, low moisture hot vapor.
What is a steam cleaner?
The discovery of this stone was in Southern California in 1989 and popularized it. It has a special name for the True-Red color that it is. Mined in Afghanistan, Brazil, Nigeria, and Madagascar.
What is Rubellite Tourmaline?
This 563 carat share cut sapphire was mined in Sri Lanka and owned by J.P. Morgan in the early 20th Century. This is one of the largest sapphires in the world and is displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
What is the Star of India?
This stone has a PLAY-OF-COLOR. The high dollar stones comes from Australia retailing as much as $15,000/ct. Treatments are done to this stone including smoke impregenation and dye.
What is Opal?
Graded for their deep red color and taking a premium price if mined in Myanmar (Burma), the origin of this stone, tone of color and clarity drives the value of this stone.
What is Ruby?
This is a high-speed rotating spindle equipped with abrasive wheels or buffs.
What is a jewelry polisher?
This phenomena is a metallic play of color caused by light diffraction within the stone’s internal structure.
What is Labradorescence?
One of the largest diamonds ever found in the Premier Mine in South Africa in 1905 weighing at 3,106.75 carats. This diamond was cut into 9 large diamonds and 96 smaller ones. The largest is known as the Great Star of Africa.
What is the Cullinan Diamond?
This stone is resistant to breakage and chipping. This stone is ranges in tones of green, brown and grey color is always stays cool to the touch. Most of this stone are cut into cabochons or are carved.
What is Jade?
Mined in Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Zambia, this purple quartz has only been available since the 1980’s. This is February’s birthstone.
What is Amethyst?
Instead of machine, this is a pink to purple color stone, low priced, eye-clean, but the downfall is the color fades overtime. Avoid ultrasonics, sudden temperature changes due to its heat sensitivity and will easily crack.
What is Kunzite (Spodumene)?
The following are done to stones: bleaching, fracture & cavity filling, dyeing, surface diffusion, impregnation, laser drilling and irradiation.
What are Gem Stone Treatments?